Cleaning material feeder for washing machines



A 1,1934. 51. CHANDLER ET L 1, 71,063

CLEANING MATERIAL FEEDER FORIWASHING MACHINES Filed Oct. 4, 193g y Lm 12130C114 yam ano-away Patented Aug. 21, 1934 CLEANING MATERIAL FEEDER-FORWASHING MACHINES Edward. 0. Chandler, Cleveland, and liomer Delamatter,Cleveland Heights, Ohio; Delamatter asslgnor to said Chandler saidApplication October, 4, 1932, Serial No. 626,248

2 Claims.

' This invention relates to devices for feeding cleaning material inwashing'machines of the spray type. Devices of this kind usuallycomprise a container, which holds a cleaning compound 5 in the form of apowder, and which is placed in the washing machine in such ;positionthat .part of the spray can enter the container and dissolve thecompound, and then flow into the machine, thus charging the wash waterl0 terial.

- Heretofore, a device of this nature has em-' bodied a container intowhich the powdered material has been placed and which has been providedwith a water inlet opening at the top and discharge openings in thebottom thereof. Thus the water. trickled through the powder andgraduallydissolved the same. We have found however,

that when the machine is stopped, the water" drains entirely from thecontainer and the powder becomes a hardened mass. Thenwhen the machineis started, an intervalof time approximating one-half hour is requiredbefore the hardened mass will be dissolved to the point where the *washwater is being charged at the required rate. We have also found thatconsiderable difficulty has been experienced in providing the properarrangement of the discharge openings for if they are too large thematerial is wasted while if they are too small, the solution will not 80flow at the required rate.

An object of our' invention therefore is to provide a container whichovercomes the objections enumerated and which can still be placed as aunitin the washing machine, and which will operate in a satisfactorymanner by water which flows from the spray. j

In the drawing, the figure is a side elevation, partly in section, of adevice embodying our invention. Insuch illustration, we have shown a 40container which ispreferably'cylindrical inishape and which has a sidewall 10 and a bottom wall 11. A cover 12-rnay be hinged to the containeratvl3'and held in place by a spring latch 14. The container preferablyhas a partition 15 which divides it into an inner compartment 16 inwhich the cleaning material is placed, and an'outer compartment 17.which co-operates with the inner compartment toprovide a tortuous pathfor the flow of the cleaning solution To this end the water inlet isindicated as an opening 20 in the center of the cover, while'discharge'openings areshown at 21 in the upper region of the wall 10and below-the top of the partition. The openings-are spacedsubstantially equidistantly from.

"the bottom of, the container, while additional with cleansing ma-'openings are shown at 22 in the partition 15 and preferably'in the lowerregion thereof.

Thus, water entering through the openings 20 will enter the compartment16, dissolve the cleaning material, flow outwardly through the opening22, and thence upwardly in the compartment 1''! and out throughtheopenings 21. This arrangement thus provides a reservoir of dissolvedmaterial within the container so that the device is always available forimmediate use. By moving the water in a tortuous path within thecontainen; the concentration of'the solution may be maintained at auniform rate. Furthermore, by having' the discharge openings below' thetop of the partition, .the water is forced to trickle downwardly throughthe material and thus to effect a dissolution in a satisfactory manner.

Since the cleaning material is submerged within the water, it isdesirable to provide some means for indicating the amount of undissolvedmaterial 5' within the container. To this end, we have shown a flatmetallic member 30 which willsink in'the water but whichwill bearagainst the top of the top of the undis'solved material and be suspendedthereby. A stem 31 projects upwardly from the 9 part 30 through anopening inthe cover, and thus provides a visible indicator for theamount :of material in the container.

From the foregoing description, it will be apparent that we haveprovided a cleaning'material 1 feeding device, which will now allowcomplete drainage of thecontainer whenever the washing machineisstopped, and that we have provided 'an arrangement by means of which avisible indication of the amount ofnndissolved material within thecontainer is provided at all times.

We claim: i

1. A device for dissolving cleaning material comprising a liquid.container,- an impervious partition therein, providing an inner and anouter compartment, a closure having a water inlet opening' above theinner compartment; the outer compartment. having a discharge openingthrough the container wall adjacent the upper .portion .thereof, and thepartition having a plurality of a cleaning material storage compartmentand a 1 1 through the opening solution storage compartment, means forintroducing water ina downward direction into the material compartment,said partition having a plurality of passageways therein located onlyad- 'jacent the lower end thereof but spaced slightly above the bottom,said partition being impervious above the passageways, said containerhaving a discharge passageway extending from the solu-

